Cybrary announced on Sept. 12 that it had raised $3.5 million in a Series A round of funding led by Arthur Ventures. Tenable Network Security's founder, Ron Gula, also participated, along with a number of existing investors.

The Greenbelt, Md. provider of cybersecurity training services plans to use the funding to grow its content catalog and scale its online learning and testing technology platform. To date, over a million people have acquired cybersecurity skills on the Cybrary platform, which offers thousands of hours of content for beginners at no cost.

Cybrary's course library, which includes web application penetration testing, Metasploit penetration testing software and ethical hacking, is aimed at helping enterprises fill the open security positions and IT job seekers land those jobs.

If it's not already evident by the staggering number of data breaches that are dominating headlines of late, businesses are suffering from a cybersecurity skills gap.

Just last week, Equifax disclosed a data breach that affects approximately 143 million U.S. consumers. Hackers accessed names, addresses, driver's license numbers, birthdates and social security numbers—valuable personal identifiable information that can facilitate identity theft.

"Beyond addressing core cyber security and IT skills, the material available on Cybrary focuses in on specialized areas that are lacking across industries such as incident response, technical project management, malware analysis, and penetration testing," said Ralph Sita, co-Founder and CEO.

"Cybrary brings together people, companies, content, and technology to create an ever-growing catalog of online courses and experiential learning tools that provide IT and cyber security learning opportunities to anyone, anytime, anywhere, continued Sita.

Often, a hefty price tag can keep IT career hopefuls from enrolling in an online learning program. Getting started with Cybrary is a low-risk affair, Sita noted.

"With free video courses, the platform works to bridge the skills gap by providing access to tools professionals need to be competent and confident," he said. "The open-source model fosters this ecosystem of information sharing in order to create a frictionless environment where those professionals can learn at their own pace and assess their skills while interacting with the community of over 1.2 million users."

Additionally, there's no shortage of in-demand and pressing cybersecurity skills to learn on the platform, with more to come beyond security.

"Cybrary's course catalog will be the world's largest portfolio of courses and tutorials covering unique products, industry best practices, skills- based certifications, career- based learning paths, and more. We've seen a huge demand for topics like data science, secure coding, enterprise risk assessment, and software development," said Sita. "Be on the lookout for those additions in the near future."